IF you skipped through the pages to the middle of the newspaper today just to see the cartoon, you are probably not alone.

In fact, it’s the popularity of the daily newspaper illustration that curators at Cairns Regional Gallery are counting on to attract new crowds of gallery-goers, who might not realise they are engaging with art every day.

Gallery director Andrea May Churcher (pictured left with exhibition manager Justin Bishop) said the collection of cartoons offered a gateway into art that people might not have considered.

"A lot of people feel as though a gallery can be quite an intimidating place or it’s elitist, and that’s why I wanted to get this exhibition – to show people they can engage with art without knowing it," Mrs Churcher said.

"People in Far North Queensland are so engaged with politics – they really get out and battle it out – and with the state and local elections coming up, it seems like a topical exhibition to have."

Mrs Churcher said it’s the Australian wit that often draws newspaper readers to a political cartoon before a political news story.

"Australians are very good at laughing at themselves, and presenting serious subjects in a humorous light is a way to make people feel more comfortable to engage with them.

"It takes it out of that arena of aggressive carrying on and into something where we can take fun out of it."

The works are grouped into categories such as the carbon tax, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd and live cattle exports.

Exhibition curator, Guy Hansen, from the National Museum of Australia said the issues and power struggles dominating federal politics in 2011 meant cartoonists had plenty to keep them inspired.

"For cartoonists the year in politics was like witnessing a road accident. Horrible to watch but impossible to look away," he said.

North Queensland artist Harry Bruce, who draws a weekly cartoon for The Weekend Post, was honoured to have one of his works included in the
exhibition.

He insisted political cartoonists were only as good as the politicians they were satirising.

"I was inspired by the 30-odd years of governments promising to do something but never delivering," he said of his Bruce Highway cartoon, drawn after the floods and cyclone Yasi last year.

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